Hockey on​​ Your Block’s goal is to give children who wouldn’t normally get a chance to play hockey that chance.

One of the ways the non-profit organization recruits kids is by going into Chicago Public Schools. Hundreds of kids of all races and ethnicities have signed up in recent years, and there’s a waiting list of 200 at this moment. Over time, Hockey on Your Block co-founder and executive director Ray Lilja has recognized one distinct trend in the children interested in hockey within the schools.

“We’ve all marveled at how many Hispanic kids sign up,” Lilja said. “I would say that even in the schools where there are primarily African-American students we’ve still had more Hispanic kids sign up. They really love this program.”

It’s one more sign interest in hockey has spread in Chicago’s Hispanic community in the past decade. It’s no surprise that rise has aligned with that of the Chicago Blackhawks. Winning has a way of attracting new fans. The Blackhawks have seen a 408 percent increase in the number of Hispanic fans from 2007 to 2016 based on Scarborough research.

In an effort to serve those new fans and welcome even more in Chicago’s Hispanic community, the Blackhawks and Univision formed a partnership last season to air Spanish-speaking broadcasts of games.

“It’s sort of this twofold thing — underpin and service this group that Univision illustrated to us that was there and growing,” Blackhawks executive vice president Jay Blunk said. “But that’s probably gone on for the last 8-9 years with the Blackhawks. We’ve had to introduce the game of hockey to a lot of areas throughout the Midwest to people maybe because of the home television policy or whatever.

“It’s become the last 8-9 years must-see television, and a lot of times people who are watching, this is the first hockey team they follow. This is the first time they’ve engaged hockey. We’re very conscious of that. This was just a natural thing for us to do, just one more area that we saw that there was growth and that we sort of needed to feed that hunger.”

Univision is broadcasting 14 games on 1200-AM this season. (Courtesy of the Chicago Blackhawks)

Univision senior vice president and general manager Doug Levy initially brought the idea to the Blackhawks. He had taken notice of all of the Hispanic people at the Blackhawks’ 2015 Stanley Cup championship parade through Chicago.

“I think we recognized after the last Stanley Cup parade that there was an awful lot of faces in the crowd up and down that parade route that recognized us as we were filming them and we recognized them as our audience,” Levy said. “After doing a little bit of research, we found out, ‘Hey, guess what? There’s a lot of Hispanic fans who love the Blackhawks.’

“I think that’s driven by the enormous amount of success they’ve had on the ice. They win three Stanley Cups, if you live in Chicago, you wear the logo, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from. We thought let’s reach out and see if there isn’t a way for us to get together and take things slow and be deliberate, but see if there isn’t an opportunity for us to expose the Blackhawks even more to the Hispanic fan base.”

Univision broadcasted one game on 1200-AM last season between the Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings on March 6, 2015. It’s led to 14 games this season.

“It’s little piece of history we’re proud of,” Blunk said of last season’s broadcast. “It was met with significant applause in the Hispanic community, so we were very excited about that. So we saw there was something there, and it worked very well for us. We had some of the logistics worked out, so we sat back down with them and said this is an area of growth not only in the city of Chicago, but really in the Midwest that we’d like to open and take down the barrier of language to our sport and our organization. And they were great. We went from one game to 14 home games this year. We’re looking to maybe build it even more significant in the future.”

Last season’s broadcast was a test run. It was a chance for everyone to get a feel of a Spanish-speaking hockey broadcast, which aren’t all that common. The Florida Panthers also broadcast games in Spanish.

Univision play-by-play announcer Hector Lozano especially had to adapt. He had called other pro sports, but nothing can prepare you for hockey’s pace. He did receive some useful tips from fellow play-by-play announcer John Wiedeman, who calls Blackhawks games for WGN Radio.

“Mr. John Wiedeman, he just gave me the best advice ever,” Lozano said. “‘Just keep it simple. The game is too fast. You’re not going to be able to do it like every single … The puck moving from side … No, no, no, no, keep it simple, do your thing, try to be as creative as possible with the wording and how the puck moves on the ice.’ So, that helped me a lot. Because I was like, wow, this is going to be … He said I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’m still learning. You’re just starting and you’re doing it in Spanish.

“From the first game, we’re getting our rhythm with Mateo [Moreno], Omar [Ramos], myself. We’re getting a rhythm when they jump in, when they talk, when they let me finish a play, when the team is about to score. We’re getting a rhythm.”

Before Lozano was calling Blackhawks games, he was a Blackhawks fan. He’s also witnessed the growth of the Blackhawks and the sport within the Hispanic community.

“I came to this country when I was 11 years old,” Lozano said. “From the first time I saw it on TV and even more so from the first time I came to the old Chicago Stadium to watch the Hawks, it’s just, I mean, you get captured by it. This is what happened to me, and I’ve been following it all along.

“Everybody wants to follow a winner. They’ve won three Stanley Cups in the last seven years, and it has even grown more in the Latino community here in Chicago. I’m telling you, I was doing live shots, I’m also the anchor for Univision Chicago, and the first Stanley Cup within the last seven years, and we went to a bar in the Hispanic community. It was packed, and all you could see was Latino fans wearing their sweaters, wearing their Blackhawks sweaters. And it was great. This is first, second generation that had been in this country, but still the more you get into it … My dad, God rest his soul, followed the Blackhawks, and he grew up in Mexico. Like I said, even more so with the success of the team, it’s growing and growing and growing.”

The Blackhawks and Univision hope for continued growth and possibly broadcasting more games in time. Levy also acknowledged they have to be patient.

“Look I don’t know about the listenership how quickly that will catch on,” Levy said. “I know the better the team does, the easier it is. We’re promoting it vigorously across all of our platforms — on TV, on digital assets. We’re interacting with them at experimental opportunities. It doesn’t happen overnight. Nobody just all of a sudden decides, hey, look this is something we’re interested in. But I think there’s enough interest and enough momentum that we’re optimistic that it’s going to continue to build.”

Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane is now in his 10th season and has seen the drastic changes in fandom. For Kane, a Spanish-speaking broadcast is another exciting way to introduce hockey and the Blackhawks to people.

“Obviously we’ve pretty much come from square one when I was a rookie,” Kane said. “At the same time, it’s cool to see different types of cultures and different types of races get involved in the Blackhawks. I know that’s one of the things with our sport – we want to grow. We don’t want to be leaving anyone out in that regard, I guess.

“I think the Blackhawks do a great job. We have some of the best marketing in the world. We’ve seen that not only with our players, but different things we do outside of the rink. That’s good to help grow the game. It’s good to get different cultures involved. With the whole Univision thing, it’s exciting that, hey, our games are going to be airing to some people you didn’t think would be listening. It’s a cool opportunity for us, and obviously the Hawks have done a great job of that for the past long time here.”

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Scott Powers is the lead hockey writer for The Athletic Chicago. Previously, he covered the Blackhawks and the White Sox for ESPN Chicago. He has also written for the Daily Herald and the Chicago Sun-Times and has been a sportswriter in the Chicagoland area for the past 15 years. Follow Scott on Twitter @byscottpowers.